Hana Zen

5 November 2009
JT and I tried this place as a potential spot to take Sensei. The food was OK, would be fine in any other city Sensei visits, but was not up to the high San Francisco standards. However, the most memorable part of the meal was the couple seated a few tables away from us.

Server brings out the orders of Dude and Dude’s Wife. Dude’s Wife is obviously immediately unhappy, complaining “I can’t eat this” with a grimace as Dude starts eating his own dinner. Server comes over to check on them, I hear Dude saying “Can you scrape it off?” Dude’s Wife’s dish returns to kitchen, and Dude keeps eating his dinner.

Server returns with scraped food. Dude’s Wife insists she still can’t eat it. Her problem was that she ordered chicken teriyaki but only wants chicken WITHOUT the teriyaki. Server tries to explain he can’t “scrape” anything else off because the chicken is cooked in the sauce. Dude asks how much they would charge to make another order not cooked in the sauce. By this time, Dude has finished his dinner. Dude’s Wife is still just sitting there sipping tea and looking increasingly more forlorn.